The Arab at Home

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Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1924 - Arabian Peninsula - 345 pages

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Page 191 - By God, he that is weakest among you shall be in my sight the strongest, until I have vindicated for him his rights ; but him that is strongest will I treat as the weakest, until he complies with the law.
Page 124 - O thou king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar, thy father, a kingdom and majesty and glory and honour; and for the majesty that he gave him, all people, nations and languages trembled and feared before him; whom he would he slew, and whom he would he kept alive, and whom he would he set up, and whom he would he put down.
Page 129 - ... in the last years of the eighteenth and early years of the nineteenth century. These were particularly serious in the West Country woollen areas, though it was...
Page 257 - Mohammedan countries, by frequent references to the Koran. And in an admirable general discussion of the conditions in Arabia, he says : " Religion endorses it, the social order depends upon it, and the welfare of the slaves themselves demands it. The Sheikh of Abu Dhabi once spent the best part of half an hour explaining to me that the slaves who were freed lived under conditions far worse in every way than those they had enjoyed while still slaves.
Page 80 - ... Dr. Harrison — have described the system under which these divers are held in bondage. The Arab owners, as in the case of the owners of peons, first secure them by debt, and then inflate the debt until it becomes a perfect weapon of control. Having fastened upon him the chains of debt bondage, " The diver is now a slave for the rest of his life. It is probably easier for a negro slave on the Pirate Coast to escape than it is for a Bahrein diver to regain his freedom. As long as he is in debt...
Page 309 - The most common method of treatment practiced in the Gulf, and one that is both validated and forbidden in Prophetic medicine, was cautery. Cautery was "in great vogue," wrote Paul Harrison. "All manner of complaints are treated by branding the over-skin of the affected part, or indeed sometimes the skin of some other region. The underlying idea, of course, is counter irritation, and frequently the practice is very beneficial.
Page 207 - Christians of the people of .ZElia, health ! and to all who follow the right way, and believe in God and in His Prophet ! To come to the point. For my part, I beg you to bear witness that there is no God but God, and Mohammed is the Apostle of God, and that the moment of judgment will come beyond all doubt ; and that God will raise men from the dead. And if you will stand to this, your blood is sacred unto us, as well as your property, and your children ; and you shall be to us as brothers. But if...
Page 236 - Koran schools. It is also an inn where any belated traveler may rest for the night, where the poor who must beg for their living can sleep, and where any man who is sick may rest till he recovers, if he has no better place to go. I myself have slept in the wayside mosques of Oman while traveling in that part of Arabia. This function of the mosques as philanthropic institutions is very important. No beggar, no traveler, no stranded sick man need lack for shelter, at least, in any Mohammedan city.
Page 145 - Bedouin camel-man took it from Hasa with a letter stating its amount. He delivered them both five days later in Riyadh and received for his work a moderate pay. No one except the western stranger was even surprised at transporting money in that manner.
Page 5 - ... and after looting the place came upon a small gold box which seemed very valuable. After some effort he was able to open it. It contained a box similar in character but smaller, -and this when opened held a third. The final inner casket contained some fine white powder. The thief was curious to know what sort of powder was preserved with such extraordinary care, so he tasted it. It was salt. Salt is the bond of hospitality in Arabia, and the robber, having thus unwittingly partaken of the hospitality...

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